Left the dock at the marina just as the sun was coming up. No clouds, not too chill and the wind was less than 10Kts. Quick run to the southern midbay lump and the trout bite was a little slow, so move to the NE lump and the white trout were very cooperative, gulp on a 1/4 oz jig head was producing a fish on almost every cast. A couple of 15 inchers with a lot of short stuff mixed in. Remembered someones suggestion to keep a gulp/jighead under a cajun thunder behind the boat on a drift and was rewarded with 2 really nice black sea bass. As the sun got a little higher so did the wind. By 8:30 there were white caps everywhere and the bite died
Ran over to umbrella cove to catch some pilchards. Put out the anchor and put the chum bag out. Not good,
the chum was flowing right into the wind. If the current and the wind are running the same direction, often 1 or 2 casts of the 10' diameter net gets all the bait I need. My castnetting into a stiff wind results in a lot more bananas than circles.
After 10 bananas and a few D's had plenty of bait for the major feed period. Tried around Lanark reef in gin clear water with no luck. Tried the grass flats just west of Turkey Point channel where the water was really stirred up with a couple of short specs and one real nice spec lost at the boat.
Tried a couple of other spots with very little action before heading back to the NE midbay lump about 12:30. Wind was way to strong to drift so I anchored and put a pilchard under a popping cork and did not get another rod in hand before the Shimano Baitrunner was screaming. 16" white trout. Caught 10 white trout in a row ( alright I missed a few) all about the same size and most of the time the Baitrunner was screaming before I picked up another rod. The few times I did git to cast a spoon, trying for Spanish, I just hooked small white trout.Finally something with shoulders grabbed the pilchard. Turning the baitrunner feature didn't make much difference in the speed that line was going off the reel. After stripping most of the line off the real I really wished I had set my anchor up for Quick release. As I saw the bottom of the school I started palming the spool. The creature that inhaled the pilchard finally stopped and started heading around the boats. After 2 trips around the boat and over the anchor line I started to gain some line. After about 15 minutes I got the creature within 20 ft of the boat and then-----------nothing. Must have given it a little slack on a pump.
Nothing broken, just came unbuttoned.
After a 2 minute rest put another pilchard out, The fight with the creature must have put every thing on that lump off its feed so after 15 minutes I moved to the southern lump. Anchored, put out the pilchard and the game was on again.
I was pretty sure this was Spanish I was looking for earlier. Super fast long first run, then able to work it near the boat and then another strong run, then near the boat, and wow it was a big one, one more short run and it was net time, or more precisely, Three Stooges Time. Probably took 5 minutes to go from ready to net to in the boat. If it had not been so big it would still have gotten away! The only was I could get it in the net was head first with it's mouth open, cut 3 strands of then net with one shake but got caught by it's dorsal fin. Got out the Boca grip and the knife to finish off what the Spanish had started. When I got the net cut away the Boca showed 6.5 lbs. The biggest Spanish I ever caught.
The wind had laid a lot by now, so I decide to make one drift before heading in. about 1/2 way across the lump
not as fast as the Spanish but real steady and strong, After 15 minutes I was tired of this fight so I tightened the drag. The fish started towing the boat around by the 15lb test Ande. After another 5 minutes got a glimpse of a LARGE redfish. After a 10 minute tug of war over 1 ft of line finally got the Boca grip on it's lower lip. Removed the hook picked it up, 26-27lbs. Put the Boca rope around the spring line cleat, started the engine and put it in forward till Mr. Bull was getting feisty, rmoved the Boca and waved Mr. Bull goodbye. What a spectacular day of fishing.
........Got me thinking I best book a flight, sort some accommodation on AP, buy/rent truck and boat and make my way back over for a few weeks, is Autumn/Winter really here already, where did this year go?